Insects As Common Carriers.- great strides have been made in recent years by scientists in regards to the further prevention of disease by studying the life habits of insects.  It has been clearly proven that the poison or germ of certain diseases are carried by them, such as tuberculosis, typhoid fever, bowel complaints of children, by the common housefly; malaria and yellow fever by the mosquito; the bubonic plague by the rat flea, of which there are several varieties, and the squirrel flea, of which there are also several.

It is easily understood that to prevent the spread of a contagious disease from one individual to another, the precautions are not complete unless he or she be protected against either the bite of a mosquito or fleet which is received into its own blood the poison or the germ causing the disease, which conveys by biting another person.  Fly should be kept out as, by coming in contact with the spittle or discharges from a patient, they carry the germ of poison upon their feet, etc. to the food, milk, water and by direct contact to another person.

As to aid in the prevention of disease, the numerous boards of health of city and state have issued regulations and instructions whereby these insects can be destroyed and then every person, sick or well, can be protected.  If well, the flight is a danger by bringing disease into her home, if ill, it can convey our disease to another screen is home and start an epidemic.

There is distinctly different set of priorities that are being covered in this book than those we might consider today.  Typically malaria for example is only known in the tropics, but that definitive line on the globe might not have been known about back then.  Installing screens on Windows had a dual benefit of keeping out mosquitoes as well as flies.  Today we might worry about getting a discount on budget software or spending less time in traffic, but back then mosquitoes had much larger impact on the lives of people in the west much as the same insects have a great impact on people that live in Africa today.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• Wonders of Sight, Hearing, Touch and Locomotion
  
  

  Next we will start to explore Chart III.  This is a relatively short section and it will conclude book 1 on the Human body. 

  Just to give you a little hint of what is to come, each section here seems to kick off with the description of “something” and Its Wonders.

  Example

  The Eye and Its Wonders

  The Ear and Its Wonders

  The Hand its Mechanisms and its Wonderful Endowments

  I’m not making that up.  You’ll see . . .

• How to Destroy the Breeding places of Mosquitoes Part 4
  
  

  How to Destroy the breeding places of mosquitoes.-every citizen should use his influence to have every village, city and state corporation appropriate money to eliminate all marshes by filling with soil, drain all stagnant streams and have kerosene oil spread on the surface of lakes, ponds or any other body of standing water, no matter how small. The object of using oil as to prevent the “wrigglers” and “tumblers” from getting air, for after leaving the eggs, they require air to develop. A film of oil prevents the “wrigglers” from getting the needed air and they are destroyed by choking. 1 ounce of oil is sufficient to cover 15 square feet of water. Oil should be applied and removed once a week during the breeding season. In standing water must be kept, screen the containers or keep tightly covered, so the females cannot deposit their eggs. Screen all doors and windows. But screams up early in the spring.

  So finally in the last paragraph the author drops a bombshell about who actually destroy mosquitoes. Surprisingly, the recommended procedure is to essentially contaminate and poison lake streams and cons with oil. While that recommendation might possibly stifle the development of mosquitoes, which I am actually somewhat doubtful about, it would also stifle the health of anyone that wanted to benefit from drinking that water or any animals for that matter. So this case the concept of position do no harm seems to trigger a scenario where this remedy is worse than the original problem, even though the author did not understand this concept 100 years ago probably.  Today, it is common knowledge and even a oil futures broker would be hard pressed to recommend this tactic.

• Breathing Capacity of Lungs
  
  

  Breathing Capacity of Lungs. –the breeding capacity of the lungs bears a close correspondence to the stature of man. For an ordinary sized man of about 5′8″ in height, it will be 230 cubic inches, or about 1 gallon of air, and for each additional inch of stature up to 6 feet, there will be an increase of 8 cubic inches. in a forcible expiration all the air in the lungs is not expelled; or still remains behind 100 cubic inches. thus, with his son expelled air, the breeding capacity of an ordinary sized man is about 330 cubic inches, or equivalent to 11 pints of air. Of the 230 cubic inches, 100 can only be forced into lungs by the exercise of great effort, and is available for emergencies as striking a heavy blow, or for the purpose of training, as in singing, rolling, running, climbing, etc.; but the extra amount of air old was on hand in the lungs is of great value, since it enables the lungs to perform their functions continuously, even under severe and violent exertions.

  _________________________

  At this point in time I’m on page 47 of this text. We’ve been walking through basic anatomy, and I have a layman’s education in anatomy. I think this might be the first time that I’ve actually learned something conceivably useful from the book. I do not know how accurate it might be, I was intrigued by the concept that some of the air for the lungs remains in the lungs continuously. I do understand the concept of air pressure and this does make logical sense in that regards. It would also explain why it’s important to cover hole in the chest if you happen to puncture a lung. The puncture creates a deflated long which is lost that amount of air which remains at a constant level.

  All in all I’m quite impressed that I have learned something from the book that’s meant to teach me something.